Not for you (FIN)

Dom woke me at eight - four hours after I had dropped on the bed. Obviously he had undressed me during the night, something I didn't remember at all. I decided that the past few days had way not enough sleep for me; and the fact that I probably wouldn't get much more sleep until the next day didn't exactly improve my mood.

He, too, was a bit grumpy; I guess the lack of sleep also got on his nerves. However, there was no way we could show this, now that the ever transmitting necklace was around again. Verone would most certainly suspect something if we got to bed so early but were sleepy all day.

Day. Last day before Verone's plan would hopefully not kick into action successfully. I winced at the sheer thought of it while we were showering.

"Anything wrong?" Dom said.

"Was just thinking about tomorrow, you know?"

"Hm."

Ah, we were back to the one liners again.

"I'm scared." I said.

"Me too. Listen, if Bilkins and his folks don't lay out a really detailed plan next night which covers all eventualities, we'll all flee by dawn; and I want you and Michael in a plane back to Germany by noon."

"But-"

"No 'but', Dana. As much as I like you, I'd rather have you safe half a globe away than here with me with that guy or his minions on our necks."

I preferred not to say anything more, but I had my own thoughts. Definitely needed to talk to Brian later when neither Dom nor the necklace were present. I decided that I, too, needed something like a plan B if anything would go wrong but it wasn't so easy to make one as long as I didn't really know what plan A was...

"I'll have to go to Verone's house today. I need to take a good look at it, how the rooms are connected and such. So far I've just partially seen it; I think I need to see more."

"Just be careful when you do this. Don't exactly like the idea of you hanging around with that guy in that house."

"Me neither, but I think this is really something I need to do." I said. "Perhaps I could take one of the others with me, pretending to bring supplies for the party tomorrow. This would almost certainly make sure that Verone and his friends are not present when I walk around the house. And I guess he, too, will understand that I need to know what 'my own' house looks like from the inside before I invite people for a party."

"Right. And what will we both do this evening before the last meeting, hmmm?"

"Right now I think sleeping would be brilliant."

"Okay, so what will we both do after the meeting?" He smiled. "We had so little time with each other alone in the last few days..."

"I'd again vote for the sleeping, though I could need a massage or two before that..." I chuckled.

"Massage or two, hmmm? I think I can arrange that."

"Don't expect me to be too... concentrated during such a massage, though. Can't really block tomorrow from my brain, you know?"

"Likewise. Now, let's get dressed, go to the garage and pretend it's a normal day."

As if that day would become normal by pretending it to be, I thought.

I have no idea how I dragged myself through the day. The mood in the garage was relatively low. We couldn't even really make jokes about the night before, because if we had, Verone would have known that we didn't stay in bed.

By the afternoon I drove to Verone's house together with Vince; that seemed the best option. While I occupied Vince for Verone with bringing some light supplies for next day's party in, I walked through the house, trying to remember as much as possible. There was another door from a storage room behind the kitchen that lead to the garage - good to know, I thought; another way out. Then there was a back door; massive and locked. Top floor didn't hold too many surprises; besides the bathroom and the bedroom I already knew there were two more bedrooms. I silently counted my steps when walking through the rooms so that I could draw a scaled map of the house; just hoping that I would remember the numbers until the night.

Finally we drove back to the garage.

The evening came, the night came; Dom woke me up at midnight. This time I really had problems trying to stay awake. How much sleep did I have in the last three days? Ten, fifteen hours? It just wasn't enough but I knew that all our lives depended on each of us being awake at that last meeting and at what would follow the next day.

That night the garage was crowded; Bilkins had brought a good dozen of FBI folks along. I tried to draw the map of the house as accurate as possible; hoping that I didn't forget anything.

The plan would go as following:

I would, as I was told, leave the house at about 4:30 PM. As soon as the FBI would know that Verone and his folks would be in the house - which would be accomplished by merely watching the house's camera transmissions, which they were already receiving - they would come around, storm the house, arrest the bad folks, let the good folks go.

Problem with that plan: The people in the house wouldn't be safe until that plan would have worked out successfully. Plus, the FBI couldn't be too close to the house until then because they knew Verone's ways of finding out that he was watched.

Good thing about the plan: The team would get bullet-proof vests and would probably, because their number would probably be higher than the number of Verone's people, be able to partially defend themselves.

I didn't like the plan at all. Too many 'probably' in the 'good' things. I wasn't the only one who didn't like it, but there was nothing we could do about it. Except of perhaps hoping that the plan would work.

Dom was still talking to the FBI people when I finally decided that my chance to talk to Brian had come.

"Bri, can I talk to you for a minute?" I said, pulling him aside.

"Sure, what's up?"

"I want one of those neat headset devices, to at least hear what's happening in the house as soon as I leave it. Perhaps even such a handheld monitor to actually see it. Don't want your pals to know, though."

He looked at me intensely for a minute or so. "You know that Dom wants you gone at 4:30, right?"

"I will be gone, I just want to know what's going on until I arrive back here at the garage and can see it for myself." I said.

Another minute of intense staring. "You know that if anything goes wrong, this could break you? Listening to or even seeing it, I mean?"

"I'm fully aware of that."

More staring. I was good at staring contests by now. Finally, he spoke again.

"I'll see what I can do and hand it over to you during the party preparations tomorrow if I can do something, okay?"

"Thanks, Bri." I said. "I appreciate it."

"You're welcome." He said, already walking over to someone else who wanted something from him.

Sway was the next who caught me, still standing in the corner where I had stood with Brian.

"You already told him?"

"I didn't." I exactly knew what she meant.

"May be your last chance." She said.

"I know, but we've talked that over and just so that we can concentrate better, we both decided that it's better to postpone that to after this damn party." I answered.

"Somehow I doubt that he was all for postponing it, but if you think it's right, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Right, Sway." I said, turned my back on her and went away.

Bilkins clapped his hands. "Off to bed with you people! You all need sleep. See you all tomorrow afternoon."

I admired the self control that kept him from speaking out the word 'hopefully' at the end.

Dom and I drove 'home' in total silence. I thought about Sway's words again and again; Dom seemed occupied with his own thoughts.

At the apartment I just undressed and fell into the bed just like Dom; but sleep wouldn't come.

"Can't sleep?" He said, startling me because I thought he was sleeping.

"Not really." I whispered into the darkness.

"Why are you doing this?" He said. "I mean, I know why I am doing this. I'm doing it for Brian and Roman and for the rest of the team, to get all our records cleared. It's totally beyond me why you are doing this."

"I'm not so much in danger as you are." I said, not really believing my own words.

"Yeah, but that's something you didn't know when this whole thing started. I wanted to keep you out. So why the hell are you doing it?"

I felt and heard him moving beside me, one hand came up above my head playing with my hair, the other was slowly moving across my stomach. I couldn't see him in the darkness, but the breath I felt on my skin made me know that he was looking at me.

"To help you?" I said, taking the hand on my stomach into mine.

"And why would you want to help me? Or the others, even?"

"Because... I like you? Because we're friends?" I replied.

"We're friends? Nothing more?" The whispered voice in the darkness sounded disappointed.

"Don't do this. Not tonight. Please." I said. "I know what you want to hear, but don't make me say this." I felt tears in my eyes and was thankful for the darkness.

"Perhaps I just want to know that when I leave that house tomorrow, there will be something waiting for me. Something worth fighting for in that house."

"Perhaps I would appreciate if you would fight for your own life in that house." I replied.

"Well, I would appreciate if there was no need to fight for my own life." He said.

"Right, that too." I said. "By the way, in the unlikely case that anything should happen to me - I'll deposit the second payment under the seat in the Pacer. Just so you know..."

"I don't want to know that!" He almost shouted. "But just so you know - Memphis has a letter for you in case..."

"Shut it!" I shouted back. "I really don't want to hear-"

"Well, I don't want to 'hear' either!" He growled.

"Then just stop talking, will you?" I said. "See, I'm so tired and I really think we should-"

"Tired, too; but you know as good as I do that the sleep won't come. Let's do something else but talking." He suggested with a voice so soft and small that I almost thought it was someone else speaking but Dom. "Love me. Not the 'control' shit we've been trying on each other so far; not the endless battling who's on top or not. Just love me; show me if you can't say it."

"But..." I started just to feel his lips brushing over mine.

I gave in to the kiss, it was slow, soft; something I had never experienced before from him. His hands were moving over my body; not the teasing way he so liked to use, but touching, feeling.

I was half asleep because I was so tired and half awake because I wanted to; but in this half dozing, half active state I finally gave in to this world of not thinking; letting my hands wander over him, too; feeling his muscles move under them.

His breath on my skin when he was kissing his way down my throat to my breasts, his hands on my body, sweat breaking through mine and his skin, our bodies gliding, breathing, entwining, pressing against each other. I could feel our mutual desperation to practically crawl under the other one's skin, to be closer and closer to each other, even if anything closer would have meant that our bodies would have to share the same space, which, of course, was physically impossible.

I heard him breathe faster, murmuring words that I didn't understand because they were uttered so silent and softly; and somehow I remember saying something likely, sometimes in English, sometimes in German; and it all didn't matter and mattered so much.

Eventually we came to the point at which we partially shared the same space; he slid into me so soft and careful that I could do nothing but let out a soft sigh.

"Mine." I heard him whispering close to my ear; followed by an audible breathing out that ended with a breathed "Yours."

"Yours." I whispered back; I didn't even have to think about the word; it seemed natural. Then I turned my head to kiss him, breathing "Mine" to his lips before I did.

He lay still, his forehead resting against mine. "Don't you dare not being there when I come from that house tomorrow." He said.

"Don't you dare not coming from that house." I whispered back.

He started to move inside me, so slow and tender that I could have screamed. Looking back, I think I eventually did. His hands all over me, my hands all over him.

While this had started in a sideways position, he eventually rolled on me, moving faster; I could feel his skin moving on mine, his breath in my ear, soft moans of both of us in the still of the night. No teasing, no testing, no holding back; we just loved each other.

Then I felt his hands cupping my face, his thumbs stroking over my cheeks; I didn't flinch but used my own hands to move his hands away from my face and shook my head slightly wile doing it.

His hands came to rest on my shoulders, I used mine to hold on to his shoulders and at about the same time we came together. It was a slow building, long taking climax which later made me wonder if the pendant's box was really as sound proof as Bilkins had said. Later, because at that point of time, I really wasn't able to think.

He kept lying on me afterwards, breathing fast; our sweat slick bodies still moving in unison, even during that breathing.

"Still not so much up for the face touching, hm?" He said softly.

"No, that's something we still need to work on." I smiled. "See, there's your reason to come back from that house in one piece."

I could feel his breath on my skin, knowing that he looked at me. I just knew he was chewing his bottom lip.

"What?" I said.

"Nothing."

"It's not 'nothing' if you're deciding to eat your bottom lip the way you do. Can't see it, but I know you do it. Speak."

"If I ever, ever get to know the names of the people who did that to you, I swear, they will suffer for the rest of their miserable lives."

"There's still half a globe between them and you. You're big, but I doubt your arms are that long."

He snorted. "Baby, I know people all over the world. Believe me, they'd happily do the little favor of dragging them by their feet to me."

"Could we let the topic rest? I don't really want to think, let alone talk about them. Especially not now."

"You're not gonna tell me their names?"

"No."

"I'll find them out anyway."

"Dom... I don't know... maybe they've changed by now..."

"You believe that?"

"Not really, but I don't want you to get into trouble because of me."

"The only ones who will get into trouble is them, not me or you."

"No, Dom. I hate harming anyone. Even them."

"I didn't ask you to harm them."

"Still no."

He shrugged. "As I've said, I will find out with or without your help."

The events of the day finally took their toll, and I yawned.

"Dom, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm so freaking tired. Can we sleep? Or at least try to?"

"Sure, baby."

He rolled to the side and pulled the coverlet over us, spooning me from behind.

"Time to get the fucking pendant from the box, hmmm?" I said a bit sleepy. "This way we don't have to take it out in..." I lit up the clock on the nightstand. "Gods, Dom, it's already half past four."

"I know. We need to sleep." He said.

"Right." I replied, already grabbing for the box. His arm held my hand before I could open it.

"You remember that I love you, whatever happens." He said.

"I will." I replied and thought for a short moment about saying the words he obviously expected; but I didn't. Instead I pulled the pendant out and draped it over the lampshade as usual.

Sleep came fast; I think that I was already asleep when my arm dropped from the lampshade to the pillow.